Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Crash Course videos

Add this to your toolbox: the Crash Course YouTube video series from Vlogbrothers. As of this posting they have made 64 videos, 32 each on World History and Biology. The videos are silly, exciting, very visual, interesting, and extremely engaging. Their geeky-silly style is akin to Bill Nye, Alton Brown, and Horrible Histories. And through this unique combination, the producers are incredibly able to cram you full of more information in 12 minutes than you've probably learned in your lifetime on a subject, and have you able to not only understand but retain it all. IMPORTANT NOTE: these videos are targeted toward older kids or young adults, and are sometimes quite blunt in their content matter, so you should preview each video before having your child watch it to determine the level of appropriateness. But don't worry - they're so fun, you won't mind one bit watching the video a second time with your child! ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: these videos are also blatantly secular in their perspective, so often there will be philosophies in them that don't line up with the philosophies of most conservative homeschoolers. So again, preview each video first. However, I still maintain that these videos are useful, despite some of the content, due to their ability to engage and interest the learner and effectively give them a big-picture understanding of a topic before delving into the topic for further study. Please consider using them as a sort of preview of a subject, and following up each video with questions and conversation and further learning. And for parents of younger children, or children for whom the videos aren't appropriate, parents should also consider watching them for themselves, so that YOU can have a working understanding of the topic at hand before you delve into it. Or, you know, for pure entertainment, because these videos are CRAZY FUN!!

The list of videos to date, not in any particular order...

BIOLOGY

Your Immune System: Natural Born Killer

Evolution: It's a Thing

The Big Guns: Your Muscular System

Your Skeleton: It's ALIVE!

The Excretory System: From Your Heart to the Toilet

The Digestive System

Circulatory & Respiratory Systems

The Nervous System

Animal Behavior

Chordates

Complex Animals: Annelids & Arthropods

Simple Animals: Sponges, Jellies, & Octopuses

Comparative Anatomy: What Makes Us Animals

Taxonomy: Life's Filing System

Population Genetics: When Darwin
Met Mendel

Evolutionary Development: Chicken Teeth

Animal Development: We're Just Tubes

Speciation: Of Ligers & Men

Natural Selection

Meiosis: Where the Sex Starts

Mitosis: Splitting Up is Complicated

DNA, Hot Pockets, & The Longest Word Ever

DNA Structure and Replication

Heredity

Photosynthesis

ATP & Respiration

Plant Cells

In Da Club - Membranes & Transport

Eukaryopolis - The City of Animal
Cells

Biological Molecules - You Are What You Eat

Water - Liquid Awesome

That's Why Carbon Is A Tramp

HISTORY

Coal, Steam, and The Industrial Revolution

Latin American Revolutions

Haitian Revolutions

The French Revolution

Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution

The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain Cook

The Seven Years War

The Spanish Empire, Silver, & Runaway Inflation

The Atlantic Slave Trade

The Columbian Exchange

The Renaissance: Was it a Thing?

Russia,
the Kievan Rus, and the Mongols

Venice and the Ottoman
Empire

International Commerce, Snorkeling Camels, and The Indian
Ocean Trade

Wait For It...The Mongols!

Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa

The Crusades - Pilgrimage or Holy War?

The Dark Ages...How Dark Were They, Really?

Islam, the Quran, and the Five Pillars All Without a
Flamewar

Fall of The Roman Empire...in the
15th Century

Christianity from Judaism to the Constantine

The Roman Empire. Or Republic. Or...Which
Was It?

The Silk Road and Ancient Trade

Alexander the Great and the Situation ... the Great?

‎2,000 Years of Chinese History! The Mandate of Heaven and
Confucius: World History